Moving into the fast-growing mobile payments market would expand the company’s revenue generation far beyond its current focus on advertising. The initiative is reportedly led by Sean Ryan, Facebook vice president of platform partnerships.

With the Irish authorization, the FT said, Facebook would become an “e-money” institution that can operate throughout Europe in a process called “passporting” that streamlines EU financial services.

Facebook also has talked to at least three London startups involved with international money transfers via smartphones and the Internet: TransferWise, Moni Technologies and Azimo, the FT said.

The company has limited approval for some U.S. money transfers, so that it can process payments when Facebook users make purchases within games on the platform — for instance, buying a cow or an apple tree in FarmVille.

But Facebook’s attempts to get its massive user base to dig deeper into its pockets have fallen flat. It has pulled the plug on several e-commerce ventures, including Facebook Deals, Facebook Offers and Facebook Gifts. A virtual currency called Facebook Credits, designed as a way for members to store and spend money in Facebook apps, bit the dust in 2012.